Previews

Madden NFL 08

The gridiron giant returns with an arsenal of new weaponry. Yeah, weaponry.

Spiffy:

All of the talk of animations rings true in crucial gridiron moments; 2-on-2 on the couch multiplayer.

Iffy:

We like the concept of weapons system, but we're concerned with how it will affect online multiplayer.

It's been a bumpy road for the Madden franchise on the road to next-gen. Madden 06 is largely remembered for some easy achievement points and the term "bullshot" being phrased after its controversial ad campaign showed off cutscenes that looked more like "Advent Children" than NFL. Madden 07 made quite a few strides in improving the experience, but still paled a bit in comparison to what PS2 and Xbox owners could get from current-gen gameplay, especially in the lack of an Owner mode. Of the blockbuster franchises that always have some bumps in the road to generational changes, Madden has always been a bit of the canary in the coalmine. You'll notice the rough patches in Madden before you'll see it anywhere else. With that in mind, we got a chance to see the next iteration in the franchise last week, and we think that EA Tiburon's well on the way to nailing it this year.

As with all of EA's next-gen titles, Madden 08 starts up with a highly detailed intro. Whereas FIFA and NBA Live traditionally fire up a menu that allows you to practice dribbling, Madden opens up to a massive trophy room. No word on whether or not those trophies will carry over to PlayStation Network and Home, but in-game, you'll have a trophy room, and in the center of it all is a ring pedestal. The idea behind Madden 08's ranking system will find you chasing rings. While in previous installments, you simply had a Madden level, the rings will be a symbol of your Madden level. You'll have five rings to chase, with customization mostly becoming an option only after you hit level three. Most importantly, your ring will be your rep online for other Madden players.

Otherwise, the big new addition that we saw during our demo was the Weapons system. In this new gameplay mode, you'll have players who are highlighted as having super abilities. There will be 24 weapons possible in the game, although there's no exclusivity on who gets to be which weapon. In addition to numerically ranking teams (of course, the stats we saw are far from final), each team will also have a weapon quantity at their disposal. Some players will carry more than one. During our demo, EA handed out photos of a player and his signature weapon ability; each photo will eventually be the loading screen for the final product. A "Brick Wall Defender," in this case, former Madden 2005 cover star Ray Lewis, will be tougher to get past on the field, while Peyton Manning's strongest weapon is Smart QB. We managed to compile a list of each player photo that they showed off, and the weapons they featured: